High-tech visa scramble relies on luck of draw

Madhura Godbole speaks four languages. After receiving a second master's degree from Loyola University Chicago last summer, she develops software to produce blood thinners for heart patients.

But it's luck, more than her impressive resume, that the Indian-born engineer needs this week, as she enters a fierce annual competition for a small number of visas given to highly skilled foreign workers.

Companies with operations in the U.S. are expected to file hundreds of thousands of applications this week -- some predict half a million -- for fewer than 95,000 visas made available to qualified workers, most through a random lottery.

In past years, the dearth of visas and need for workers has prompted some companies to game the system, submitting multiple applications for each worker, a practice banned this year.

But the demand for H-1B temporary work visas is expected to continue growing anyway, eclipsing last year's deluge, when one FedEx distribution facility accumulated a 15-foot-high and 40-foot-long pile of applications, company officials said, comparable to Valentine's Day or Mother's Day.

"It's so shaky right now," said Godbole, 28, who has tried unsuccessfully for an H-1B visa twice before and extended her stay in the U.S. by continuing her studies.

With her student visa set to expire in August, "all I can do is plan my life a month in advance."

The H-1B visa program was created in 1990 to draw the best and the brightest foreign workers to America's most innovative companies. The move was heralded by many who said there weren't enough qualified American workers to fill some specialized jobs.

But soon after its inception, the politics of immigration created a repeating tug-of-war over how many visas should be allowed.

Visa total shrinks

Just five years ago, the nation made available 195,000 H-1B visas. This year the federal government will make 65,000 H-1B visas available for a general pool of foreign workers and an additional 20,000 for those with advanced American degrees. About 5,000 more visas are available for foreign workers in other special categories.

Led by such companies as Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., the technology industry has renewed a push to more than double the annual limit, arguing that leaving thousands of critical jobs unfilled is damaging the American economy.

Capitol Hill insiders, however, predicted the issue would not be addressed by Congress during a presidential election year.

The increasing demand -- largely for tech workers, but also for a range from accountants to fashion models -- points to shortfalls in the American educational system, economists and business leaders said.

"Our K-12 system is not producing enough young people who want to pursue degrees in math and science," said Robert Hoffman, vice president of government and public relations at the California-based Oracle Corp. software company.

Others believe the visa crunch has less to do with American jobs than it does with foreign-based outsourcing companies, who want to train employees in the U.S. before sending them back to countries where labor costs are lower.

Firms in India get most

Last year two global consultant companies based in Bangalore, India -- Infosys Technologies Limited and Wipro Limited -- ranked first and second in visas approved, with 4,559 and 2,567 respectively, government records show. By comparison, Microsoft Corp, which ranked fifth, received 959 visas.

"These Indian companies, like Infosys and Wipro, have really turned out to be H-1B brokers," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), arguing that the employees they train here end up working mostly for other foreign companies. Durbin and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have crafted legislation that would tighten the application process and bar companies that are "H-1B dependent."

Wipro Limited spokesman Abhishek Mendiratta acknowledged that some of the company's U.S. jobs are temporary.

About 80 percent of the company's U.S. workforce is foreign, he said. But the company plans to recruit up to 1,000 American workers over the next two years.

"Wipro is committed and focused on contributing to the U.S. economy as well as recruiting in the U.S.," Mendiratta said.

A five-day filing period that kicks off Tuesday is meant to help level the playing field among companies, U.S. officials said, so that it does not become a logistical competition to see who can deliver the most applications on a single day.

Last year officials learned that 500 applications were "duplicate" entries requesting visas multiple times for the same workers, said Peter Vietti, spokesman of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes the applications. The agency implemented a rule last month barring that practice.